By Kim
Quickfire Challenge: Create a dish based on a wine pairing. Kevin has the least successful pairing, mostly because he wanted to make pork, but screwed it up and had to substitute quail at the least minute. Kelly's is also not good because of her stupid blue cheese emulsion. The tops are Angelo with a foie gras and Tiffany for her beef dish, and the winner of a trip to London is Angelo.
After tonight's challenge, the remaining cheftestants will be going to Singapore to finish out the competition. The final Elimination Challenge at Goddard Space Center is to design a dish meant to be eaten in zero gravity, meaning that it can be freeze dried and sent into space. They are advised not to use too much sugar, to have small pieces, and to make it spicy.
Here are the dishes and judge reactions:
Kelly: pan-roasted halibut with artichoke and fennel barigoule and a salsa verde salad. The fish is well-cooked, and while freeze-drying the liquid might be a problem, one of the astronauts likes the crunch of the artichokes.
Ed: yogurt-marinated rack of lamb with eggplant puree and couscous croquette. The food is cooked and seasoned well. Ripert thinks it's too complicated, but Bourdain (did I mention he's a guest judge?) thinks Ed nailed Morocco. The astronauts note that it would be difficult to dispose of the bone in space.
Kevin: grilled New York strip with bacon-jalapeno marmalade and corn puree with crispy Vidalia onions. The flavors are good, but the NASA lady nixes the onions, because they couldn't be made crisp.
Tiffany: pan-seared Alaskan halibut with coconut curry, snow pea shoots and jasmine rice. Ripert doesn't see the connection between the ingredients, but he loves the fish sauce.
Angelo: ginger-lacquered short rib with the side dish of the season, pea puree, and horseradish crème fraiche. Tom thought it was successful except for the candied ginger, and Ripert thinks it's too acidic. Bourdain thought it was sophisticated.
The judges have a hard time naming a loser, because the dishes were all good and very close in quality. The winner is Angelo, who is shocked, because he thought his dish was going to send him home. And then, holy shit, they send Tiffany home. Damn. I really thought it was going to be Kevin. WOW. On to Singapore.
The typical morning after shots open the episode. This time Kevin gets to narrate the preparations. Kevin admits that he didn't think Amanda would make it as far as he did, but he also didn't know if he would make it as far as he did. And now they are one elimination away from the finale, so he just needs to make it through this week and he gets to be there. An atypically humble speech from Kevin, who's usually talking about how he or one of his friends got ripped off by an inferior cheftestant, no?
Kelly and Angelo are sitting outside smoking. I should never be surprised when cheftestants smoke, but I'm somehow surprised about Kelly. Anyway, Angelo asks her if she misses her husband. This has to be a setup for either her being eliminated or a future storyline about her messing up her cooking because she misses her husband, or possibly a visit from home? Which they don't really do on this show, so I'm going with the first or second options. Kelly interviews that she's so used to discussing her day with her husband, who's always been supportive. And to be fair, it kind of goes beyond the typical marital relationship, since she and her husband work together too. So she misses him as a business partner, collaborator, and spouse. Meanwhile, Angelo explains that he got divorced last year, and he blames the divorce on the fact that his in-laws didn't support his profession. Yeah, I'm sure that was the problem. Especially since Angelo is already engaged again. That seems a little fishy. Anyway, Angelo claims that he's never had a doubt that he's going to win this competition, which seems a bit misguided since we saw him having major doubts and showing immense relief when he wasn't eliminated. But whatever! Let's just rewrite history to fit our own personal storyline!
Elimination Challenge. In the kitchen, the cheftestants find a table with many bottles of wine on it. This is going to shock you, but Angelo is really passionate about wine. Wouldn't he be? Like if I had asked you ahead of time, "Which cheftestant is a total nerd about wine, and talks about the notes and the oaky blah blah blah?," ninety-nine percent of you would have said Angelo. So, of course. Anyway, Padma introduces Dana Cowin, the editor of Food and Wine. Ed interviews that she knows a lot about food and a lot of about wine. Can we infer, then, that the editor of Car and Driver knows a lot about cars and a lot about drivers? Does the editor of Rolling Stone know a lot about rolling and a lot about stones? Anyway, thanks for the tip, Ed.
Dana makes a little speech about how ten percent of food and wine pairings are awful and ten percent are outstanding, and they are looking for the cheftestants to hit the "magical ten percent." Padma explains that the challenge is to choose a wine and create an amazing dish to pair with it. Thankfully, they skip the knife-drawing part, and I'm not sure why they ever show that unless one of the cheftestants has a funny or telling reaction to it, or the order has a huge effect on the final winner or something. Tiffany admits that wine pairing is not her strength, while Kelly thinks she has a leg up since her husband is the sommelier at their restaurant and they do pairings all the time. Once all the wines have been chosen, Padma drops the bomb that this is their last high-stakes quickfire (since there's no immunity anymore) and the winner will get a trip to London. Woo hoo! They've had some good prizes this season. The people from the first few seasons must be pissed.
They have one hour, and time starts... now! Kevin explains that he is going to make braised pork belly, which is tough to do in an hour. But he's taking that risk because he feels really confident in the result if he can pull it off. It is risky; braising is typically used to make tougher cuts more palatable by cooking them slowly and at a lower temperature in order to melt the connective tissue. So if he doesn't have enough time to cook it slowly, he'll have to raise the temperatures which is going to mean tough and stringy meat. And I don't think an hour is enough cooking time, especially when you factor in that he will really only have about forty-five minutes after prep and plating. Maybe it will work if it's a really small piece of meat? He's using a pressure cooker, but I don't know if that will really work. We'll see.
Kelly is making a wild boar tenderloin with a blue cheese emulsion. Okay, I've never made an emulsion, so I just looked it up. And I have, in fact, made emulsions. I've made vinaigrettes, I've made Hollandaise sauce, I've made tons of other mixtures that don't actually mix together so you have to emulsify them. Kelly doesn't explain what the other ingredients are in her blue cheese emulsion, but I'm imagining it's kind of like blue cheese salad dressing? Then Angelo babbles about wine for a while and no one cares. He uses words like "demeanor" when talking about his wine, and says he's making foie gras.
Ed and Tiffany are both making dishes using Wagyu beef. Seems like they could either cancel one another out, or get compared to one another. Tiffany jokes that she's already going to Paris so it would be nice to go to London too, and then she laughs her awesome laugh. Even if you don't like her cooking, you must like her laugh, because it rules.
Kevin checks on his pork belly and surprise! It's not cooking properly. He realizes he needs a different protein, so he decides to cook quail, probably because it's small and will cook quickly. He knows quail isn't really right for red wine, but he feels he doesn't have a choice. He quickly grills the quail pieces and explains that he's pissed at himself. He does get his food plated in time, which is a victory in some ways. It would look pretty bad at this phase of the competition if he couldn't even get food on his plate.
Padma and Dana return to taste the foods. Tiffany is up first, and she paired a Two Hands Shiraz with cocoa-and-black-pepper-crusted Wagyu tenderloin with spring risotto. It looks great, and Padma tells her that her meat is cooked beautifully. Kevin's dish ended up pairing Tangley Oaks Merlot with grilled quail, shaved apple-fennel salad and apple vinaigrette. I feel like none of those things go with merlot. I know nothing about wine, but all of those ingredients scream "white wine" to me. Kevin tries to convince them that quail can go with either white or red wine, but Dana says that the quail is quite delicate, meaning no-go on the pairing.
Angelo chose Evolution white wine and paired it with sautéed foie gras with black salt and fennel salad. Dana says only that it's "an interesting dish." Angelo looks crestfallen, because we all know that "interesting" can be a synonym for "not great" or "weird." Kelly paired Federalist Dry Creek zinfandel with wild boar tenderloin, blackberry conserve, mache and the blue cheese emulsion. That last part looks a lot like foam, and you all know how I feel about foams. Dana asks specifically about "the foam" and Kelly has to repeat that it's a blue cheese emulsion. She can say that all she wants but it's a foam.
And finally, Ed paired Il Poggione Rosso with grilled Waygu rib eye, spring potato risotto, and mushroom ragout. He explains that he wanted to use bold flavors. Padma and Dana have no comments so Ed just kind of looks around awkwardly, which made me laugh. What do you do when people taste your food and then say nothing about it? Awkward.
Dana is ready to announce the most and least successful. She says that the least successful pairing was Kevin's, and he nods since he totally knows it. She adds that the quail was beautifully cooked but the pairing didn't work. Dana also wasn't crazy about Kelly's blue cheese foam. So who was successful? Dana says that Angelo's food paired a crisp, light wine with a heavier dish. She liked Tiffany's food and thought the pairing was elegant. That's great for Tiffany, since she admitted she doesn't know much about wine. And the winner is (fast forward through commercial break)... Angelo! Tiffany just shakes her head and looks disappointed. Angelo reminds us that he hasn't won in three challenges, so he hopes he's gaining momentum. Kevin interviews that Angelo might have his mojo back. Honestly, if Angelo hadn't won either challenge this week, I would have written him off as the potential overall winner. He totally had the story arc going of the guy who started out strong and then tailed off.
So then Padma announces that this will be their last challenge in DC, because the final challenges will take place in Singapore. The cheftestants are amazed, probably because it's the first international finale. I know very little about Singapore; when I used to work at the corporate headquarters of a national retailer, we opened our first international store in Singapore and I had to train the marketing person. Which was interesting, since I knew nothing about the culture or anything, and she barely spoke English. And then I drove her to see one of our flagship stores and we seriously drove through a near-tornado. So that was exciting. Anyway. Padma introduces the last American-based elimination challenge: they will be visiting the Goddard Space Flight Center to do a NASA-based challenge. Kelly reveals the extent of her nerd-dom when she says that she went to Space Camp as a teen. You know, even after seeing that movie, I didn't want to go to space camp. Actually, especially after seeing that movie, I didn't want to go. What if I, too, was accidentally launched into space? It could happen! It did in that movie!
The cheftestants arrive at Goddard Space Center, which looks like every movie you've ever seen about NASA Command. There are lots of screens showing various maps and graphs and charts and it's full of computers and whatnot. Colicchio is there, and he introduces them to Head Nerd Vicki Kloeris, who's in charge of the food systems for the astronauts. Vicki is unfortunately lit from below in this scene, and if you've ever held a flashlight beneath your chin to tell a ghost story, you know what that looks like. NOT GOOD! Plus, she has braces. This is probably her one chance to be on a big cable television show, and then it was unfortunate. Poor Vicki. She throws it to two astronauts currently on the International Space Station. They extremely woodenly talk about the food that's available to them in zero gravity: coffee, scrambled eggs, and chicken fajitas. It's like a Denny's up in there. It gives new meaning to Moon Over My Hammy.
Anyway, the challenge this week is to create a dish that could be served in zero gravity, and the winning dish will actually be produced in Houston to go into space. Colicchio explains that they'll be cooking for a table of eight that will include NASA scientists, astronauts, and the judges. And the guest of honor will be Mr. Buzz Aldrin, who will show up to the opening of a supermarket these days. Yeah, yeah, national hero and whatnot. Also, desperate to make a dime, it seems. Or loves the limelight. Anyway, he's going to be there. Vicki gives them three tips about how to make a dish that will taste good after being freeze-dried and then reconstituted. She tells them not to use a lot of sugar, to avoid large pieces of ingredients, and not to be afraid of making it spicy. So keep in mind that the challenge is to make a dish that can be freeze-dried and sent into space. That seems important, since they went to all this trouble to set the challenge at NASA and whatnot.
The cheftestants head to the grocery store to pick their food. Ed and Angelo head right to the meat counter. Ed is buying large racks of lamb. He interviews that he heard the astronauts like spicy food, so he intends to go "one hundred percent Moroccan." Angelo is buying short ribs while Tiffany looks for whitefish and Kelly's hunting down olive oil. Kelly interviews that the person eliminated tonight will be the only person who won't be allowed to go to Singapore. I think we get that, don't we? Meanwhile, Angelo is trying to joke around with Ed and he totally bonks some poor lady with his cart.
Kevin is taking a different approach to the challenge; he thinks the astronauts would like food that reminds them of home, since they probably get homesick up there. It's not a bad tactic, except that the astronauts' votes don't really count in this competition. Kevin explains that he comes from a food family, so he likes food that reminds him of home.
The cheftestants return to the kitchen and start prepping. We don't get to see it, but Tiffany apparently did the moonwalk. Damn! That would have been funny. Stupid cameras, missing things. Kelly interviews that she's never freeze dried anything, but she thinks that NASA can freeze dry just about anything these days. Angelo thinks it would "be extremely embarrassing" not to go to Singapore. I think Angelo has a lot to be embarrassed about, starting with his Russian mail-order bride, but what do I know? Kevin notes that everyone else seems to be doing more ethnic dishes, and he's cooking something mainstream and American, so he's kind of concerned about that.
Tiffany is really excited about her sauce. She explains that she uses simple ingredients and tries to make them flavorful, and she thinks that cooking from the soul is better than using really complicated recipes. So far that has been true, but we'll see if that philosophy can take her to the finals.
Colicchio shows up to talk to the cheftestants. He hasn't done this in a while, has he? I like his little talks. First Angelo explains that he's going to do braised short ribs and Colicchio gives him a funny look. Angelo asks what that was about, and Colicchio won't tell him. He does remind Angelo about what Vicki said, including not to make the dish too sweet. So now Angelo is all worried, since Tom gave him that look. What was the look about? Is it because he thinks short ribs won't freeze dry well? We will never know what goes on in Colicchio's mind, will we? And he didn't address it in his blog. I checked.
Colicchio goes to Kelly , who is all coy about her nerd-dom like, "Did I mention I went to space camp?" Tom calls her a nerd for real, and then she explains her dish, which Tom could not be less interested. She's making something called a barigoule, which is a fancy term for stewed artichokes apparently. The producers tell Tom to ask her something about making it so far and no one cares, not even Tom. He barely listens to her response.
Chef Colicchio moves on to talk to Ed about his Middle Eastern dish. I wouldn't call Morocco part of the Middle East. I guess cuisine-wise, it is, what with the cous cous and the tagines and whatnot. Tom jokes that he's not sure about Middle Eastern cuisine, but Ed reminds him that it's supposed to be spicy.
Colicchio talks to Tiffany about her food, and asks if she's cooking something that is what she would normally cook. Tiffany says that she's coming on strong because she went back to cooking with bold flavors, which is her thing. And finally, Tom talks to Kevin about his very American food. Kevin explains that he heard that the astronauts like comfort foods, and he's just going to try to make it refined. Then Tom leaves, and we really didn't learn much from that visit. Colicchio is no Tim Gunn. That's for sure.
As time is running out, Kelly is putting something in the fridge and she notices that Tiffany's mussels are frozen. That means she can't use them, and they were an integral part of her dish. And then time runs out, although it's not like she could go back to the store, so the time wasn't really an issue.
That night, Tiffany talks to Ed about her problem, and says that she threw away the mussels. Ed advises her to just focus on cooking really good food, and the missing mussels won't matter. Meanwhile, Kevin tells us that he's a good cook. Well, he did make it this far, so I can't argue with that. Then he tells us about his dead mom, so that's sad. But really doesn't have much to do with cooking.
The morning, there's some product placement with a vehicle. They get to drive it to the final challenge and the winner will get to take it home. I don't get paid to advertise, so I'm not telling you what the vehicle is, but who would turn down a free new car? No one, that's who.
After lots of glamour shots of the car, the cheftestants arrive in the kitchen for their final preparations. They're greeted by the executive chef of the kitchen, which seemed kind of pointless. It's a little tight in the kitchen, so Ed and Kevin go and grab another table for prep work. Kelly interviews that she thinks Ed will be the one who doesn't get to go to the finals. Meanwhile, Tiffany is trying to figure out how to finish her dish without the mussels. She interviews that she started working at IHOP in tenth grade, and they told her that ladies weren't allowed in the kitchen, but she worked her way in there. That sounds more like IHOP is a sexist institution than that Tiffany worked hard. Where does IHOP get off? I mean, ladies can cook a Rooty Tooty Fresh and Fruity as well as any man.
Angelo is working on glazing his short ribs. He explains that he reduced the sauce a lot, but then he worried that it was too sweet, which was one of the things they warned them about for freeze-drying purposes. Ed goes to sear his rack of lamb, and he decides to leave a lot of the fat on top. Didn't he get dinged for that in another challenge? When he left the fat on and didn't let it render out? That's risky. Kelly points out that plating will be a hassle because they just don't have the room to set out all of their plates and then put the components on each like they usually do. I kind of hate when they make a big deal about something, like how small the kitchen is, and then it doesn't end up affecting the end result. Don't get me all tense that someone is going to knock something over or whatever and then it doesn't happen! What a bunch of teases.
The judges and astronauts and scientists walk into the dining area and sit down. I notice that Buzz Aldrin pulls out Padma's chair for her. No one pulls out Vicki the Food Scientist's chair. Sigh. Poor thing. Tom asks Buzz Aldrin how it felt to walk on the moon. What does he think he's going to say? Dumb question.
Kelly is serving first, and she's intimidated slightly by the lineup, which includes the aforementioned Buzz Aldrin as well as Anthony Bourdain. What? Where did he come from? How was this not mentioned before? Suddenly, he's just at the table. Weird. Anyway, the other people at the table are a couple of astronauts and Vicki, as well as the judges.
Kelly serves pan-roasted halibut with artichoke and fennel barigoule and a salsa verde salad. It's a pretty big piece of halibut, given that they were told to cook everything in small pieces. Tom thinks the fish is cooked well. Vicki points out that it would be tough to freeze dry all the "extraneous fluid." I'm sure Kelly enjoyed hearing her sauced called "extraneous." One of the astronauts says that they miss having anything crunchy in space, so the artichokes would be a nice touch. Wouldn't it have been cool (if logistically difficult) to have the judges eat the regular dish, then have it freeze dried and reconstituted and they try that too? It seems like it would be a better test. I don't know how they would do it, but it would be cool.
Ed is the to serve, and his dish is yogurt-marinated rack of lamb with eggplant puree and couscous croquette with hummus. Ripert immediately asks what the astronauts would do with the bone, and the astronaut says that people don't think about trash in space, but it's a problem. Ripert thinks that the dish is too complicated and has too many components, but Bourdain counters that he thinks that Ed nailed the Moroccan flavors. And he calls Ripert "the Ripper," which is awesome.
Kevin interviews that he wants the win more than anyone else there, because he doesn't already have his own restaurant. I don't know that it's true, but isn't is pretty to think so? Kevin made grilled New York strip with bacon-jalapeno marmalade and corn puree with crispy Vidalia onions. Tom thinks the meat is cooked well, and well-seasoned. Vicki points out that there's no way you could maintain the crispiness of the onions. Good point. That will probably matter, right? Since that's the point of the competition?
Tiffany serves her pan-seared Alaskan halibut with coconut curry, snow pea shoots, and jasmine rice. Ripert isn't that excited about the various components, and doesn't see the connection or what elevates the halibut. Seems like the mussels would have helped there. Bourdain really likes the fish sauce, though.
Angelo gives last-minute plating instructions to the serves and then serves his food: ginger-lacquered short rib with the side dish of the season, pea puree, and horseradish crème fraiche. Buzz liked the flavor, and loved the pickled mushrooms, but thinks it might be difficult to reproduce in space. Tom liked the food, but thought the candied ginger was too sweet. Ripert thought the whole thing was too acidic, and Bourdain jokes that he's all about sweetness and light (which if you know anything about him, you know isn't true) as he says that he thought the dish was very sophisticated. Look at Bourdain, loving everything! The food must be really good this week.
Angelo sits in the kitchen and worries about his dish. He says that he "put [his] heart on the plate," which sounds kind of gross. I don't want to eat Angelo's heart. Gamy.
Weird interstitial is even more weird this week, because usually it's like an outtake. This week, we just see the cheftestants eating one another's food and talking about how much they want to make it to Singapore. BOOOO-RING!
Judges' Table. Tom opens by telling them that the food was amazing and the difference between the winner and loser is really small. That would be more scary, I think, because what you say and how you defend your dish could make a difference. If the food totally sucked, what you say doesn't matter, because you're going home. But if all the food was good, it seems like it could come down to what you say at Judges' Table, which would freak me out.
Ed starts by saying he tried to give the astronauts what they asked for, spicy food, even if they might not be familiar with Moroccan cuisine, specifically. Bourdain says that he had a lot of things going on with his plate, but he pulled it off. Ripert disagrees, and thought the dish was too complicated, but he recognizes Ed's talent. Tom concludes by saying you can get away with a lot of components if they're all done well, and Ed's food was done well.
up: Tiffany. Tom says that her tomatoes were kind of mealy, and leaving the skins on the peppers was a mistake. Ripert suggests putting lemon juice in the sauce to make it brighter. Tiffany tells them about the mussel mistake. Bourdain wanted her to use a different fish, to match up with the excellent sauce. I would imagine she chose whitefish so it wouldn't compete with the mussels, and then without the mussels, everything was kind of bland.
Tom tells Kelly that her artichokes were cooked perfectly, and she admits that she learned the technique in Provence, which impressed Ripert.
They move on to Angelo, and Tom says that he found the crystallized ginger too sweet. And then Angelo just goes nutty. Or nuttier. He says that he "took a submissive role" when making the dish, and he "felt like [he] made love" to the short ribs. And then he giggles awkwardly. Bourdain tells him that he has no idea what Angelo is talking about, but his dish was good. Ripert liked it too.
Finally, Tom tells Kevin that his dish was good all around, and his only criticism is that the steak could have been cut thicker. Bourdain says that Kevin might have played it safe, but Kevin goes back to his theory that the astronauts would want something familiar.
Wait, they didn't say anything at all about how the food could be freeze-dried? Or whether or not they followed the rules given by NASA? See, here's the thing. They need to either follow their own rules, or just don't bother with the weird tie-ins. If they want to have a challenge about cooking a good dish, just do that. But if they're going to pretend it's all about which dish would be best in zero gravity, then maybe that should factor into the judging, based on the criteria we were given. So the loser should be someone who used large pieces of ingredients, or a lot of sugar, or served bland food. Right?
In the Stew Room, the cheftestants discuss how close this challenge was and how any of them could go home. Back the judges: Tom has nothing bad to say about Ed's dish, but Ripert brings up his complaint about how busy the plate was. Bourdain defends Ed by saying that he cooked his heart out. They move on to talk about Kelly, who had Ripert's favorite dish. Could it be because she used French techniques? Tom and Bourdain point out that her dish wasn't all that original, and Ripert has to concede the point.
Then they talk about Angelo's food. Padma loved it, and so did Tom, except for the candied ginger. Bourdain also loved it, and Ripert thought it was original and unexpected. Tom thinks that Kevin paid attention to what the astronauts asked for, which is a big part of the challenge. They don't talk about his onion rings, which couldn't possibly be freeze-dried. Bourdain points out that it's Top Chef, and he made sirloin, which I guess is too pedestrian for him. I don't know. If it tastes good, do it. And I do agree with Kevin's point about the astronauts being homesick. If I was stuck in space for months at a time, I would kill a steak or two.
Finally, they talk about Tiffany's food. Bourdain was a big fan of her fish sauce and her curry. Ripert was disappointed that she cooked the pea shoots in the sauce, which made them lose their flavor. And Colicchio can't stop talking about how she didn't skin the peppers. I didn't even know you COULD skin peppers, but I have zero culinary training, unless you count what my mom taught me. And I've read some books here and there. And I cook dinner a lot for my family. Anyway, Colicchio concludes by saying that all five dishes were very good. Seriously, where was this food all season? Suddenly, everyone is awesome. Should be a good finale, regardless of who makes it.
The cheftestants are brought back in to find out who won't be going to Singapore, and who won this challenge. And the winner is... Angelo. Wow, really? Even with the candied ginger? I really thought it would be Ed. None of them had anything bad to say about his food, did they? Angelo wins the car, a trip to watch one of the two remaining shuttle launches, having his food in space, and a copy of Bourdain's book.
So now they're down to four, and one will be leaving. Tom tells them that it was a difficult decision. Kevin elevated a home dish. Kelly made her food look effortless. Tiffany's flavors leaped off the plate. Ed gave them a tremendous plate full of flavor. So who's the big loser? Kevin, probably. Right? Wait, it's Tiffany? FOR REAL? Kevin also thought it was going to be him. Tiffany cries in her exit interview. Aw, Tiffany. I really thought you could do it all, baby. I hope if they have another All-Stars thing, she gets to come back. I'd love to see her compete against some of the other seasons' cheftestants. Go get married and go to Paris, girl.
Watch the episode below, discuss it in our forums, then see where past cheftestants are now!
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